


Finding The Way

by Kelkat9



Series: Through The Void and Darkness Series [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dimension Travel, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-30
Updated: 2012-12-19
Packaged: 2017-11-15 12:36:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/527390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kelkat9/pseuds/Kelkat9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU to JE. What if the reality is that Rose never showed up in JE? What if everything Rose perceives about that day isn't real and there is no metacrisis and what if she found out it was all a lie. The Void is a mysterious place and no human is meant to cross it much less hurdle themselves through it as many times as Rose did. Reunion fic eventually</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:**   I do not own Doctor Who  
 **A/N:**   There are many JE fixits but I think this might be a bit different.  This story is not a retelling of JE although reference to AU JE events will be discussed.  How Rose crossed the void into the parallel universes fascinates me and this story will explore what the void is and what may exist in this dark space between universes. 

 

Rose stood in the cold, wet sand of Bad Wolf Bay stunned by everything that had just transpired. She felt the Doctor’s hand in hers and looked up at him. She was a bit baffled at how she should feel about this Doctor who was not her Doctor and yet, some how he was. He squeezed her hand and stared into her eyes as if trying to comfort the tumultuous feelings he knew were overwhelming her. Confusion and despair pulsed through her. She gripped his hand harder shutting her eyes tight as the tears threatened to burst forth.

“Rose, I need your mobile. It’s bloody freezing and we need to call your Dad,” Jackie said, shivering on the desolate beach. Rose nodded wordlessly at Jackie’s request and handed her the phone. The Doctor pulled her into his arms and held her tight. Jackie looked up at him worriedly and he shook his head indicating that he had her.

Jackie walked away talking to Pete explaining where they were and what had happened. Rose sobbed as if she had lost everything. The Doctor held her tight and murmured something comforting into her ear. She pulled back after a while.

“I need a minute alone, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll just be over there on that sand dune,” he responded, indicating an area behind him looking at her sadly. He turned, hands in his pockets and trudged slowly away, his red trainers sinking into the wet sand. The icy Norwegian wind whipped her hair around her head as she watched him walk away. She kicked her sodden boots in the sand and sank to her knees. She rubbed her hands over her cold and numb face. She stared at the square impression in the sand where the Tardis had been as she began to tremble from the cold. She’d never been so cold.

“Rose, Sweetheart,” Jackie said, looking at her daughter compassionately. “It’s gonna be all right. The Doctor’s here now and we can be a family. All of us together.”

“Mum, you don’t get it. The Doctor’s still out there and he’s gonna be alone.”

“But, he’s got Donna now. He’s not alone.”

“But he is. I saw it. When I was travelin across the void, I saw all these timelines. There were these possibilities twisting around and most of them had him alone if I didn’t stay with him. Something awful was gonna happen unless I was there to stop it.”

“Oh Rose, you can’t save everyone and you have the Doctor here too and it’s like he said, the walls to the Universe are closed now. You need to accept that.” Rose stared at her for a moment and turned to the square impression in the sand. “Come on, it’s freezing and we need to get to town. There’s a storm rollin in. Pete’ll be here tomorrow to take us home.” Jackie walked up to Rose and put her arm around her and the two of them walked toward the Doctor who was standing and staring in deep thought at the rough and stormy sea.

After trudging over sand dune after sand dune in the frigid, whipping wind while the Doctor babbled on about the type of sand found on this beach, as well as the potential climate fluctuations associated with the universal retro closure, they finally reached the town. During the trip, Rose kept feeling like she was missing something. Almost like she forgot to do something but she was so tired and overcome with emotional upheaval, she just couldn‘t figure it out. By the time they reached the inn, Rose was frozen through and tired of listening to her Mum snip at the Doctor while he babbled on about sand and dimensional travel. As they were walking upstairs to their rooms, they passed a mirror and Rose paused. Something in the mirror was off. She swore she saw it warp.

“Rose?” the Doctor called.

She looked up at him and blinked hard. “Sorry, I thought I saw something. Guess I’m just tired.” He nodded and gripped her hand pulling her up the stairs. They passed another mirror on the way to their room and she saw the same thing. It almost looked like the mirror wasn’t solid and the reflections looked distorted. She kept thinking it felt like a fun house mirror.

“Rose!” the Doctor said loudly, and put his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him startled.

“Are you all right?” he asked, and looked toward the mirror she was staring at.

“I’m fine just tired. My mind’s playin’ tricks on me is all.” He nodded and led her in to their room. He offered her up the shower first. She undressed and stepped into the steamy, hot shower and felt pinpricks as the hot water hit her cool skin. She had some temporary relief from the constant Norweigan chill until she stepped out of the shower. The cold assaulted her and she shivered and bundled up. As she dried her hair, she looked at the foggy mirror. She reached her hand up and wrote “Doctor” on the mirror. The writing was backwards.

“This is wrong,,” she whispered. She tried again this time writing “Rose.” When she looked at it, it was a reflection of her name not the way she knew she wrote it. “I’m losin’ my mind. After everythin’ I’m finally losing it,” she murmured to herself. “Sleep, I need sleep.” she wiped off the mirror and walked out to find the Doctor laying on the bed. He rolled over to his side and smiled at her.

“Felling better?” he asked.

“A bit. I’m just tired.” He nodded and walked over to a table near the window and uncovered some food he had delivered to the room.

“Thanks,” Rose told him. He encouraged her to eat while he showered. She sat by the window and bit into one of the sandwiches. She glanced at the window and saw herself but not as she was dressed now. She was standing upright staring straight ahead still dressed in her jeans and blue coat. She turned around and looked at the room but everything was fine. She looked back at the window and saw the same reflection. She shivered again and pulled the robe tighter around herself. She looked over at her clothes and decided to get dressed. When the Doctor came out, he found her sitting on the bed.

“Thought you were tired? Why are you dressed?”

“Something’s wrong,” Rose answered, staring at the window.

“What do you mean? What’s wrong he asked, immediately reaching for his sonic.

She smiled when she saw him react in such a Doctory manner. “Every reflective surface I look at is wrong. It’s like they’re warped and when I look at them, they don’t reflect what’s in front of them.”

The Doctor walked up to the window and stared at it. “Rose, it’s fine. Look, I’m standing in front of the window waving to myself. See, here I am. This is me waving,” he said smiling, as he waved to himself in the reflection of the window. Rose watched and he was correct. There was nothing weird with his reflection.

She walked up and stood next to him and everything looked okay. He turned to grab a sandwich and it changed. “Doctor!” she yelled. He walked over chewing his sandwich and looked at the window.

“What?” he said, as he chewed.

“My reflection. It wasn’t me here in this room!” Rose insisted. He sighed and looked at her.

“Rose, get some rest. It’s been a long day. You’re exhausted.”

“You sayin’ I’m seein’ things?” she asked, perturbed at his attitude.

“I’m saying that you’re exhausted and have been traveling through the void. Humans aren’t meant to do that. No telling how that may have effected your mind. Could cause all kinds of nasty side effects.”

“Great, so you’re sayin’ I’m losin it.”

He walked over and pulled her into his arms. “No, I’m saying you need to get some rest and we’ll talk about it in the morning. If you’re still seein things, we’ll investigate.”

She nodded. “All right. Guess I’ll just get some rest then.” She removed her boots and curled up under the blankets. “Good night.”

“Good night, Rose. I promise, everything will be clearer in the morning.”

Rose closed her eyes and felt goose bumps pricking her skin and as once again, she shivered from the cold. That night she dreamed about an overwhelming and oppressive darkness. It suffocated her and when she screamed, she could hear no sound. She was alone and yet she was being watched. She knew someone or thing was talking to her but there was no voice. She felt fear and a consuming distress. She tried to run but something was holding her back like she was immersed in a freezing thick black tar. It clung to her and was sucking her deeper into a dark pool and the more she struggled, the deeper she sank. She woke up the next morning screaming.

The Doctor was immediately by her side looking concerned. “It’s wrong,” she insisted, and jumped out of bed and began pacing.

“What’s wrong? Rose, talk to me,” he said, walking over to her.

“Something is wrong with me,” she said, walking back and forth. She stopped and looked at him her eyes wide. “It’s the void”

“What do you mean,” he asked, his voice now reflecting his concern.

“I think that maybe I left something in the void. Part of me is still there.”

He pulled out his sonic and scanned her. He looked at her, his eyes full of concern and ran his hand through his hair. “We need to get back to Torchwood now. I need to see this dimension canon.” he said, taking her hand and pulling her toward the door. Jackie was in the lobby with Pete when they arrived. “We need to get Rose back to Torchwood now!” the Doctor insisted. “We think something may have happened to her in the void.”

“What do you mean? What’s wrong?” Jackie asked, looking at Rose worried.

“It may be nothing, but we need to check Rose out and look at the dimension canon. Rose crossed the void multiple times and no human is meant to do that.”

Pete nodded. “Understood. I have a zeppelin ready. Let’s head out,” Pete said, with authority. Due to technological advances made in Zeppelin navigation and propulsion, they were back in London in two hours. Pete took Jackie home while Rose and the Doctor went straight to the dimension canon. Rose paced back and forth while the Doctor soniced and examined the canon while softly muttering to himself. Rose walked over to one side of the room which was lined with mirrors that were used to reflect and refract some of the energy necessary to operate the canon. They seemed to shimmer and undulate almost like when a pebble is thrown into a pond. She kept seeing herself inside, trapped. She rubbed her arms up and down as she shivered. She turned around and found the Doctor staring at her.

“Why can’t you just accept it?” he asked.

“What? Accept what? What are you talkin about?” Rose asked. He looked unnaturally still, his eyes dark and fathomless.

“This life here with me and your family. It could be good you know. All you have to do is accept it. Accept me.”

“Doctor, something’s wrong. This isn’t about you or what happened at Bad Wolf Bay. Something is wrong with me or maybe we didn’t’ fix things and the universal walls are still down.”

He snorted and paced. “All you had to do was accept things. I would have given you a perfect life, but you can’t do that can you? No, you’re too stubborn for that.” he said, pacing and gesturing with his hands almost angrily.

“What are you talkin about! We have to do something. The universe could collapse if it’s not fixed,” she said frantically, and then another wave of cold wrapped itself around her. She gasped.

“You know what’s wrong don’t you?” she whispered, backing away from him.

He looked at her sadly. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. If you had just accepted me and this life, this wouldn’t be necessary,” he said looking at her, and shaking his head. “You see, no human was ever intended to cross the void much less as many times as you attempted. But then, you’re no typical human are you. Especially, not now. Rose backed up until she was almost touching the mirrors. Her breath caught as she watched the mirrors liquefy and the liquid silver pour out of them like a shiny waterfall cascading into rivulets down the wall and pooling at her feet.

“No. This can’t be happening. Why are you sayin’ this to me? Doctor, Please!”

Suddenly, she felt a horrible pain shoot up her leg. She looked down in horror as the liquid mirror was enveloping her legs. She looked up at the Doctor or image of the Doctor or whatever he might be.

“Doctor, please, help me!”

“It’s too late for that now, Rose Tyler. You’re mind just wouldn’t’ accept it.”

“No! It hurts. I’m so cold,” she cried out, tears flowing down her face and freezing. Her breath puffed out in any icy mist. “Please don’t do this!” she begged.

“It’s already happened,” he said softly. Those were the last words that Rose Tyler heard before she was completely enveloped by the icy, silver liquid and the reality around her dissolved into nothingness.

  



	2. Chapter 2

After dropping Sarah Jane back with her son, the Doctor set the coordinates for Cardiff. The Tardis needed to recover from towing the Earth back after the Doctor and his Children of Time had successfully thwarted Davros's plan.

He was grateful that after his and Donna's visit to the Shadow Proclamation, his friends had left him a trail to find Earth. It was a welcome surprise to find all them, his defenders of the Earth; Sarah Jane, Jack and Martha gathered to help him. Looking back now, he realized it all could have gone so wrong.

It had been a shock when Jackie and Mickey had arrived carrying massive particle guns. It disturbed him to see his friends carrying such deadly weapons. Although, he was grateful when Mickey destroyed a Dalek which had suddenly appeared in front of the group screeching "Exterminate." He shuddered to think what could have happened to his friends if Mickey had not been there. The horror of Jackie’s' demand to see Rose was still fresh in his mind and he might never forget the look in her eyes when she learned that no one had seen her daughter or could reach Rose on her mobile.

Even the trip to the Dalek Crucible with all his friends on board to help him, was one filled with tension and a deep-seated fear as he had flashbacks to the Time War. The Tardis was able to lock into Davros' location and with the help of everyone, they somehow managed to take control and save the day, but this was not a day where everyone lived.

A terrible weight sat upon his shoulders with the knowledge that his friends would so easily take up arms and commit acts of violence, even though it was to save and protect the rest of the universe. Davros’s caustic and virulent words echoed in his mind. All he ever wanted was to teach his companions what they were capable of and provide them with an opportunity to flourish even though, he knew that they were human and ruled by their emotions. This meant that although their love was capable of great good, their love for him could also be cause for implementing horrific destruction and the events on the crucible was evidence of this.

While he confronted Davros, Mickey and Jack secretly activated a jamming device that would affect a twenty meter area around them which would prevent Dalek weaponry from functioning. It was a risk, but it was one they had decided to take to give them some advantage over Davros. When Davros revealed his reality bomb, it became clear to all of them that it must be stopped no matter the cost to them.

While the Doctor, with Donna at his side, pleaded with Davros to listen to reason, Mickey, Jack and Martha took control of the weapon to prevent its discharge while Sarah Jane and Jackie operated a force field to prevent any more Daleks from attacking them.

Finally, Donna dragged him from Davros and set him to work saving the twenty-seven planets. While he worked on sending the planets back with the help of Donna and Sarah Jane, Jack, Mickey and Martha set off an explosion which would destroy the reality bomb and create a feedback loop effect to destroy the crucible. He was horrified that once again, he was a killer. This time he wanted to die with his victims.

Of course, his Children of Time wouldn't let him die with Davros. Jackie and Donna dragged him back to the Tardis. Jackie had slapped him hard and admonished him that he had people to save including her daughter. Donna had lectured him in typical Donna fashion, grabbing him by the ear and hauling him over to the console. Once the Earth was back and he dropped off Sarah Jane, Jackie transported back to Pete’s world to try and find out about Rose.

Now, sitting in Cardiff, he could do nothing but pace around the console restlessly as Donna, Jack, Martha and Mickey watched him.

"You hafta do something. Pete called and said Rose never made it back and they can't reach ‘er. It's like she jumped through into a hole or somethin. Jackie's beside herself. Pete says they can't come back through and the walls to the universe are closin. If that happens, then Rose...." Mickey said, unable to finish his sentence. He was leaning against the console next to Martha staring at the Doctor's mad hair pulling and pacing.

The Doctor spun around and faced Mickey fury in his eyes. "You shouldn't have let her do this! Both of you knew how dangerous it was!"

Mickey stiffened and stormed over to confront the Doctor. "You think we didn't think about’ it! The stars were goin’ out for months in our universe ‘fore we figured out the walls were down. The entire world was in a panic. Rose knew that you could help us and me and Pete agreed. Rose and me worked nonstop at Torchwood to get somethin’ that would work and not tear our universe apar'. You don't know how bad it was. People were killin’ themselves, jumpin’ off of buildins. As for Rose, you know 'er. Nothin was gonna stop 'er. Nothin'."

"But why her! Why did she have to go!"

"I really gotta answer that?" Mickey responded, arms crossed, glaring at the Doctor.

"This isn't getting us anywhere. Rose is lost out there somewhere, probably in the void. We need to find her. There must be some way." Jack insisted, stepping next to Mickey.

The Doctor nodded. "Yeah, might be," he said softly, anguish in his eyes. He walked slowly over to the console and caressed it. “It'll take a while for all the tears to heal so maybe the Tardis can find some trace of her," he said, not sounding the least bit confident.

Martha, who had seemingly nonstop dealt with a melancholy and depressed Time Lord, decided enough was enough. "Doctor, don’t try and pull one over on me. You think I don't see what you're doin? You've already decided she's gone. You've practically given up and just want to mope around about it. You're so busy in your misery you can't see what's around you! You have friends here, Doctor! Maybe you're ready to give up on Rose but we're not. You know, I don't know her 'cept through everything you and Jack said, but seems to me she's never given up on you." Martha let out a digusted sigh. "Is what she did any different from me walkin the world during the year that wasn't? I did that so that you could save us. Rose jumped across bloody universes to find you so you could save us. And you're gonna what, give up? No. I know what it's like to do what she did. I'm not ready to walk away from someone who was willing to do all that to save people.

Besides, I can't help but think if she cared for you anywhere near the amount you do for her, she was probably just as much a misery, except she did something you didn't. She didn't give up. While you moped around, seems like she actually did something. You know, once I may have had less than kind thoughts about her but now, I want to meet her. I think maybe she and me might have bit in common."

Donna applauded. "You tell him, Martha Jones!" She then walked over the Doctor and crossed her arms. "Now listen up spaceman, Martha’s right. We’re not gonna stand by here and watch you pout and mope about everything you lost and all that happened to today! So pick up your skinny little alien arse and crank up that big ole Time Lord brain and come up with a plan for finding her! I wanna meet this Rose Tyler so I can look her in the eye and tell her what a saint she must be for puttin up with your gob."

The Doctor stood up and stared at Donna with wide eyes and maybe a bit of attitude.

"Well, what you standing around for!" Donna practically shouted at him.  
Jack and Mickey smirked. The Doctor inhaled and let out a big breath, ran his hand through his hair.

"All right. Rose once looked into the heart of my Tardis which means like you," he pointed to Donna, "She has traces of Huon particles along with a good dose of artron energy and of course void stuff. That might be a bit of a unique cocktail." He stopped and rubbed his face and then his eyes lit up. He gripped his hair and looked at Martha. "DNA! I need a sample of her DNA!"

Martha's eyes lit up. "Her room still about? Could she have left something behind?"

"Exactly, Martha Jones! You and Donna go back and see if you can find something; a hair brush or a tooth brush. Take it to the infirmary and see if you can extract something. I've shown you how to do that haven’t I, Martha?"

"I'm on it! Come on Donna!"

Donna walked up to him and pulled him into a hug. "You can do this you big brilliant alien."

After they left, Jack and Mickey walked up to him. "Right, so now that you've sent them off, what's really goin on?" Mickey asked

The Doctor looked up into two sets of suspicious eyes. "What makes you say that," he said absent mindedly while hitting some switches on the console.

Well, “You’ve been standing there hitting the switch to turn the monitor off and on for the past several minutes.” Jack said with raised eyebrows while Mickey smirked.

The Doctor looked up at them and sighed.

**************************************

Rose felt a bitter cold envelop her and a pressure over her entire body. It felt like she was buried under tons of snow which was pressing down on her except she could sense nothing solid. She did not think her eyes were open and yet she sensed darkness and movement all around her, almost as if she were submerged in a dark pool with currents of blackness flowing around her varying in shades of black to obsidian with fluctuations of dark currents in between. There was a sense of floating and yet she was being compressed. She could not feel herself breathing but was not suffocating either. There was no scent where she was and she could hear no sound and yet, she was aware of something communicating like a muffled whisper of the wind in the back of her mind.

Memories filtered through her mind as if they were thistles dancing in the breeze. Sometimes she would capture one and observed until it was whisked away from her. Everything was disjointed and ephemeral. There was no sense of time or space, up or down in this place, where ever she was.

She had no idea how long she'd been there or where there was. Eventually, something in her mind pulled the scattered pieces of her together. A glowing ember sang a song calling her home. Bits of Rose Tyler that had been floating on this dark lonely river of nothingness began floating back to her body and coalescing into her human form. It was painful but she wanted it to happen. Something demanded she be Rose Tyler and Rose Tyler was human with memories and feelings that pulsed in her mind. A determination and will to live was beating, howling and clawing its way through the darkness. Conscious thought burst forth when the essence of Rose Tyler coalesced in this mysterious alien realm. Finally, her mind focused.

"Where am I," she mentally screamed out. Although she could feel no physical body, she trembled with fear and anger at this stifling and murky prison. Once more she howled through her mind "Where am I! Who’s out there? Why are you holding me here?"

The whispers in her mind became louder and more pronounced until she could understand them.

"The being has regained consciousness. Fascinating." it whispered.

"Who are you!" she demanded, as her mind acclimated to her surroundings.

"Who are you?" it replied.

"I'm Rose Tyler. What have you done with me?"

Although she could not feel her body, she was not without some form of sensory perception. Something was moving, sliding and wisping about her.

"We are us. This is our domain. You came here." it answered mysteriously.

"No, I didn't. I was going somewhere not here," she answered, confused as she gathered more memories into herself. "Wait, I was trying to reach Earth. This isn't Earth."

"Earth. Ahhh a planetary body existing outside of here. Beyond us."

"Wait, you said I came here? Am I in the Void?" she asked.

"You are here," it answered.

Emotions roiled through her, dominated by fear. "I was moving from one universe to another. Are you the space in between?"

"We are here," it repeated.

"Great," she mentally groaned. "How do I leave here?"

"You are unlike us. You feel different like a time before we were here, before we became us," it stated.

"Please, I need to leave," she begged, and then more memories drifted into her. “Wait, you, you tried to trick me!" she said indignantly.

"The creature named Rose Tyler is fragile and was fragmented when it came to us. Its mind fascinated us and we desired to study it. A replica of its environment was created to give it time to coalesce itself back to Rose Tyler. Rose Tyler did not accept the replica of this reality that was created for it. Now, Rose Tyler must exist in an environment outside of its own. Most unfortunate. Most detrimental to its existence. Although Rose Tyler does seem capable of adapting. No corporeal being should survive and yet Rose Tyler does. It intrigues us."

"Intrigues you! I don't belong here. Let me go, I need to find the Doctor," She mentally screamed. Silence and nothingness answered her. Fear clawed its way into the crevices of her mind in attempt to overwhelm her as the horrifying perception of being totally alone in this silent and senseless place descended. "Hello? Wait! Don't go!" she begged.

"Doctor," it said. "That word is known to us. The creature Rose Tyler has entered and exited our world many times and left traces of itself with us each time it enters our domain. It echoes with this word, Doctor."

"Yes, I need him to save us from the darkness. It's destroying my universe and he can help us. Please, you must let me go. You created a whole reality around me with him in it so you must know he can help us," she asked. She heard and felt the whispering feeling again.

"We find the meaning you ascribe to Doctor a contradiction. A corporeal being who is unlike the creature Rose Tyler and yet connected through Tardis. What is Tardis."

Rose wasn't sure how to answer this. Before she could think how to communicate, one phrase popped out that reverberated among the darkness. "Bad Wolf."


	3. Chapter 3

“….Right, so now that you've sent them off, what's really goin on?" Mickey asked

 

"Even if we find Rose, she's been in the void. I don't think you realize how very bad that is. Even worse, we don't know how long she's been there. She won't be the same. She won't be the Rose we know," the Doctor finished sadly.

Jack's eyes turned steely. "Ya know Doctor, you're missing the point here. She's in the void and she needs help. How can you stand there and even think of not going after her." Jack paced a few steps and turned around to face the Doctor "This is the game station all over again. Just because being there might change her, make her different doesn't mean you should walk away. I'm not gonna let you do that to her."

The Doctor stood up and angrily stared at Jack. "I didn't say I would abandon her!. If it's possible to find her and that's a very big if, I will do everything I can to bring her safely out of there." The Doctor violently hit a control on the console and looked up at Jack. "You just don't understand what it means, her being in the void. She's in Hell, Jack. The Eternals called it the Howling for good reason. It's an unimaginable dark and desolate place where time doesn't flow. There is no up or down or flow of life as in any standard universe. It's stagnant. A cold dark place with no light, no warmth, no change. Imagine what that would do to a sentient being's mind if only exposed for a short few moments much less hours or days or more. Humans are fragile enough that passing through it has an effect on them. Even if we are lucky enough to find a way into the void, maneuver through it to her, retrieve her and by luck find out way out, she will be damaged. This is not going to be fairy tale happy ending."

"I understand that. Now you understand this. She is Rose Tyler, the girl who doesn't give up on anyone no matter the odds. We are going to find her and rescue her from Hell. If that's all you're capable of then fine. I'll take care of Rose. She can come back to Cardiff with me. I'm not gonna walk away from her cause she's hurt or traumatized. I'm not the same person I was when I last saw her either. I know what it‘s like to be different."

"Captain Jack here's right. You can't handle what's 'appened to 'er fine. Me and Jack will see to her so you can swan off with Donna or whoever else you pick up along the way." Mickey said with a disdainful look in his eyes at the Doctor’s attitude.

The Doctor was furious. He practically vibrated with it and stared at Mickey with dark cold eyes. "You will not touch her much less take her from me," he said in an angry tight voice. Mickey took a step back having never seen the Doctor this angry much less had the power of the oncoming storm directed at him. Something in the Time Lord's eyes touched a primitive fear deep within him causing him to tremble ever so slightly. Before the argument could escalate Donna walked in.

"All right, what's goin on here?" she demanded, arms crossed.

"Nothing, Donna. Everything's fine," the Doctor answered, still staring coldly at Mickey.

Donna huffed. "Yeah right, and that's why you're about to rip into poor Mickey here. You wanna be all the oncoming storm, then I suggest you focus it on finding out a way to find Rose in the void. Martha's found something that she thinks she can get Rose's DNA off of but she's having a problem and needs your help. So, you gonna go help her or do I have to tell her you're too busy comparing whose is bigger with Jack and Mickey," she said glaring at the Doctor. He seemed to calm down at Donna's comments.

"I'm not comparing with anyone." He sniffed. "Time Lords don't need to. Superior biology and all." He gave Jack and Mickey one more pointed look and headed past Donna. "I'll be back in a bit. Thank you, Donna." After he stormed off, Donna looked at Jack and Mickey. They would soon learn it was better to deal with a temperamental Time Lord than an annoyed Donna Noble.

Storming down the corridor helped him work through some of his anger at Jack and Mickey. He knew they loved Rose and only wanted what was best for her, but they were in no way capable of helping her through the psychological and physical trauma caused by an indeterminate amount of time in the void. He thought of Rose in the void, trapped in an everlasting torment and the fear he was trying to deny crept it's way to the forefront of his mind followed by all the things that could happen to her, have happened or would happen. The thought process of a Time Lord mind operates on many levels of what was, is and could be and ideas and emotions were shooting through his mind at light speed. All of these thoughts and possibilities weighed him down further and he fell just a little bit more into his own dark pit of self imposed Hell.

He had to admit there was a fragment of truth in what Jack and Mickey accused him. He was scared, scared for Rose but even more scared to have to accept she was no longer his Rose. Doubt ping ponged around his mind of whether or not he could find her and what if he couldn't. What if he had to live knowing his beloved Rose was trapped in eternal Hell. A darker thought weighing heavily on him was what if he did find her. Was he strong enough to heal her and what if he couldn't. He was a coward at heart and what burned deep in his gut was he didn't want to face a Rose who was a damaged vestige of the bright shining girl he once knew. He'd much rather remember her for who she was, his brilliant pink and yellow girl with the light of time in her eyes.

Soon, the Tardis decided he had wallowed enough in fear and self pity and presented him with the door to the lab where Martha awaited him. The Doctor walked into the lab to find Martha frowning at a monitor.

"Martha, Donna said you needed help," the doctor said pulling, out his glasses and walking over to stand next to her.

"Doctor, something's off. I've tried several samples. I found hair, a tissue with a spot of blood and I scraped some samples from a toothbrush but there's something wrong. Is your equipment on the fritz?"

"Oi! My equipment is in perfect condition," he chastised her and then looked closer at the monitor. He stood for a moment stunned at what was before him. He turned to Martha, "You've tried several samples all with this result," he asked quietly.

"Yes, It almost looks like it's been contaminated," she said pensively. "I've never seen anything like it. It's almost like it's in some sort of flux or like there's a piece missing. Was Rose exhibiting any symptoms or illness while she was here?" Martha asked in full science mode.

"No," he answered softly, as he observed the computer model of Rose's DNA.

Martha turned and stared at him. "Doctor, if this isn't a contamination and the equipment is working, we have to find Rose. This is showing a mutation that could…" Martha started to say before the Doctor interrupted her.

"I know what it is," he said. He stared at it and pulled up the results of all the other samples Martha had checked. "You did a good job Martha. You're right, we definitely have to find her but not cause she's sick. Far from it I think. She's amazing. A completely and utterly amazing creature and this is why there's only one of her."

"What do you mean this is why there's only one of her?" Martha asked, a bit perturbed at his lack of information.

He turned to her. “There was no Rose Tyler in the parallel universe and I suspect there will be no Rose Tyler in any other parallel universe and there was never meant to be. I need to find something. Get Jack in here and run a sample of his DNA as well." He said as he ran out the door.

Martha ran after him. "Doctor! Why do we need Jack's DNA?" she asked, watching him race down the corridor. She heaved a sigh and shook her head. She had forgotten how frustratingly non-communicative he could be.

******************************************

The words Bad Wolf reverberated throughout the icy darkness of the void almost creating ripples running through the desolate nothingness. Rose felt the creatures of the void pause almost like they were contemplating the reaction of the void.

Suddenly, she had a sense of something swirling around here. "The creature Rose Tyler is something new and something old. This concept of Bad Wolf is connected to Tardis. The creature Rose Tyler will explain Tardis"

"The Tardis is sort of this livin’ ship. It's alive you see and well, it takes people through time and space. Tardis means Time and...." she started to explain but before she could finish, the void entities finished her sentence.

"Relative Dimension in Space," it practically hissed at her. "A creature of the physical world and yet existing in a dimension beyond the physical world."

"Yeah," she whispered. "If you know what a Tardis is then you must know about Time Lords."

The words Time Lords again reverberated throughout the void giving Rose an uncomfortable sensation of being pulled and yet still feeling pressure at the same time. It stopped as suddenly as it started. "The creature Rose Tyler is an anomaly. It's intelligence is that typical of the human species and yet its knowledge is greater than that of the species it declares itself to be. It has the instincts of another creature of the physical world with underlying qualities of what we were before we became us."

Rose felt something inside herself shift. She was confused but what they were saying was resonating with something inside of her although, she couldn't quite grasp it in a way that made sense to her. It was an elusive concept just dancing outside of what her conscious mind could process. "Look, I swear to you I'm human. It's just I traveled on a Tardis with a Time Lord so maybe you're picking up on that. Please, I need to get to Earth. People are countin’ on me."

"The creature does not know what it is. How can it not know what it is? It feels the pull of Doctor and Tardis but it is ignorant."

"Oi! I'm not ignorant. I know who I am. Now see here, I've had just about enough of this. let me go now!" she told them and if she had been able to vocalize this, it would have been with shouting.

Rose again started to feel compressed. "Stop it!" she mentally cried out. At some subconscious level she knew the creatures of the void were probing her even though she could not feel physical touch. It was like they were running some kind of experiment to find out how she would react. Unbelievable pain coursed through her body and she mentally screamed. This mental anguish had more far reaching effects than she or the creatures of the void would know. Just when she thought she would shatter, the pain ceased. The unbearable cold was nothing compared to the mental lashing and she had just endured. If such an attack had been physical in nature, she was quite certain she would have been bloodied and broken.

"The creature Rose Tyler is strong. It resists when it should yield to out analysis and examination. We must understand. The impossible creature must explain it's perception of existence."

Rose, still mentally quivering from the assault, couldn't believe this thing was questioning her. "Why should I answer you anything more? You won't let me go and your torturing me. Is that what you lot do here, torture people who happen to fall into the Void? Is that why the Time Lords called this place Hell?" she asked shakily.

"We do not understand Hell. We are us and we exist here. You are the anomaly You came here and we must understand. If you will not explain then we must explore and test."

"No! Please no more testin. I, I'm Rose Tyler, I was born on Earth and lived my whole life there till one day I met this man, this Time Lord. Everything changed after that. I changed. He made me a better person. I traveled with him but we got separated and I've been living in a parallel world. I just want to get home and find him. I need him and I think he needs me too. Please, please I'm beggin’ you. Please let me go." Rose mentally pleaded.

At first they said nothing and then there was more whispering. A new voice addressed her. "You are recognized by the designation Rose Tyler." it stated

"Yeah, that's me." Rose replied.

"Rose Tyler of Earth, human species by declaration, state your temporal signature."

"My what?" she though wearily. She felt herself slowly waning. Existence in the void and the constant barrage of questions and probing by the void creatures was wearing on her. She couldn't help but wonder how long she would last.

"State your temporal signature," it repeated

"I don't understand? You mean when I'm from? Umm twenty first century Earth is how we measure it. Don't know about you lot."

"The anomalous creature is of the planet Earth time line 4.54 standard apple realm slash castors and descendant of epsilon prime, matrix 5."

"What?" Rose thought, quite confused at this pronouncement. "No, I'm human and my parents are..."

"Rose Tyler's familial relations to parental units is not relevant," the void creatures interrupted. The whispering and movement about her became louder and more pronounced. She could feel a tangible excitement in the air. "Further analysis required. Rose Tyler seeks to return to the place of it's creation and complete it's process. Does Rose Tyler understand its purpose?"

The unbearable pressure and frigidity of the void along with exhaustion was making it difficult for Rose to follow these void things that made no sense to her. "I don't know what you mean. I've told who I am, where I come from and that I'm tryin to get back to the Doctor to stop something terrible from happenin. What more do you want?" she practically groaned.

"The anomaly is waning. It cannot exist indefinitely here. We must understand before it can be released. The anomaly is the result of the actions of what we were before we became us. Rose Tyler and other creatures like Rose Tyler would not exist without the actions of what we were before we became us. It was not created for humans but to serve what we were before we became us. The anomaly has been altered from the desired purpose. It will explain the variation and it's new function.”

Rose felt the mood change. There was a subtle feeling of menace as if they were suspicious of something. "I told you, I don't know what you mean. I'm just a human who got lost. I don't have any purpose other than what I told you."

"The creature is tethered to that which it should not be. It is incapable of doing this itself. Such action requires advanced intelligence and knowledge and mastery of time. The anomaly stated it associated with Time Lord and Tardis, creatures of Gallifrey. It will explain it's association or we will examine the creature and determine the information. Rose Tyler will comply or suffer the consequences of its refusal."

"Wait, you said Gallifrey. I never told you about that. Who are you really?" Rose asked, having a moment of clarity and realizing whatever or whoever these creatures were, they had more knowledge of Time Lords than they were admitting.

"The creature Rose Tyler will comply or we will begin probing it." Rose felt them close in her. She tried to retreat into her mind away from them. She felt a vision manifest itself as if she was in a dark and dingy dungeon chained to a table while dark featureless humanoids stood around her holding sharp glistening needles.

Rose shivered. She sent out a mental plea. "Doctor, if you can hear me, please help me!"


	4. Chapter 4

The Doctor raced back to the medbay only to find Martha, Donna, Jack and Mickey all standing around staring at the monitor. He walked in and set his old black leather coat on the table as he walked in front of them to look at the results of Jack's DNA.

"Martha, focus in on the fifth set of alleles please," he asked, as he again put on his glasses. He stared intently while everyone else shifted nervously. Finally, he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair and turned to the leather coat.

"Doctor, what exactly are you looking for? I mean, your lookin’ at my DNA after staring at Rose's makes me wonder..." Jack said, not quite finishing his sentence.  

"Are you sayin’ Rose is like Jack?" Mickey asked, not afraid to say what Jack had been suggesting.

"What? Rose can't die?" Martha asked, looking at Mickey.

"Rose got hurt on an assignment 'bout a year ago and nobody found nothin’ weird when they treated her," Mickey told them.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "As if some primitive twenty first century human physician would know what to look for," he muttered. He then proceeded to ignore them and reached into the coat's pocket all the way to his elbow while everyone stared with raised eyebrows. Donna rolled her eyes and muttered "show off" under her breath.

He pulled his hand out of the pocket holding up a dried up wad of gum. Donna made a face. "Oh now that’s just disgustin'. What, you keep used gum in your pockets?" she asked.

The Doctor set the gum on a plastic tray on the counter and began the extraction process while everyone looked on in stunned silence. He took the sample and analyzed the DNA and compared it to the samples Martha had extracted. He stared at it a bit and then reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of black pants and began the extraction process on them.

"Hey, those are mine!" Jack said, smirking a bit. "You carry a pair of my old pants around in your pocket. I'm touched. You know you could have the real thing if you..."

"Stop it!" the Doctor groused at him before he could finish. "I'm comparing yours and Rose's DNA from before and after the Game Station."

The smile slipped from Jack's face. Martha stepped up to watch the Doctor work. When he displayed the before and after of both Rose's and Jack's DNA, she gasped. "They're different. What would make them change like that?"

The Doctor took a step back and then turned to look at Jack. Jack stared back at him and said one word: "Rose."

The Doctor nodded his head and began tugging at his hair. "You never examined her after the game station did you?" Jack asked.

"I did, but not a genetic analysis. Just made sure she was all right. She looked normal, didn't even remember anything," the Doctor said softly, as sadness once again permeated his whole being. "She probably doesn't even know."

"So what does this mean?" Martha asked.

The Doctor turned and faced all of them. "It means that Rose was able to carry and channel the time vortex much longer than she should have. It should have killed her in short order. Just taking it from her killed me. I thought the Tardis was protecting her, but it goes much further than that."

"What do you mean, Doctor. What do mean Rose channeled the time vortex? Isn't that what the Tardis travels in? " Donna asked.

He sighed. "Rose did something foolish. Brave and brilliant but foolish. We had a bit of run in with the Daleks and I sent her away to keep her safe but, she found a way back. She risked her life to save me and Jack. She was too brave and impulsive for her good. She looked into the heart of my Tardis and absorbed time itself so she could fly the Tardis back to save me, us, all of us. No one is meant to do that. It should have burned her up," he said, staring off into space.

Jack stepped up. "She sort of had the power over life and death, time and space. She turned the Daleks into dust and brought me back to life sort of permanently. The question is, what did it do to her, right Doctor?"

The Doctor turned to Jack. "Oh I think I know what it did to her. Well, what it and maybe the Tardis did." He turned to caress one of the walls. "Didn't you old girl? You saw into her and knew, you saw what I couldn't. You did your best to look out for our impetuous, brilliant girl."

"What do you mean the Tardis did something to her? What did she do to Rose?" Donna asked.

The Doctor turned back to them. "She recognized the very slight difference in Rose's genetic make-up. A difference that no one else but me would have recognized. A tiny variation hidden away in her genome. Quite intricate and gorgeous really."

"Wait a minute. Are you saying someone's been manipulating Rose's DNA?" Martha demanded. "Who would do that and why Rose?"

The Doctor looked at her. "It's not just Rose. This effects an entire section of the human population on Earth. Of course, there's probably less than .0001% of the population that have anything similar to Rose's DNA. Hers is the result of generation after generation of seemingly random couplings. A brilliant accident of genetics produced the perfect cocktail for one Rose Tyler.”

"But, that's still not right. If there were something like that, we'd know." Martha insisted.

The Doctor shook his head. "No, you wouldn't. It was designed to be hidden, a recessive trait concealed within human DNA. Temporally out of sync really. Humans won't even have the ability to notice anything odd for several millennia and even then, they couldn't find it. No Martha, you'd never have known it was there until it was triggered."

"Triggered how?" Donna asked, getting a bit perturbed by the Doctor's reticence to expound on this topic.

The Doctor began rubbing his neck and pacing.

"Doctor," Jack asked with a suspicious voice. "How did this get into the human population and what does it have to do with me? Are you saying I carry this trait too?"

The Doctor stopped and stared at Jack. "You do have a variation of it. It's not as dominant in you as it is in Rose."

"You didn't answer him. How did it get there?" Mickey asked.

The Doctor sighed but before he could say anything, the Tardis shook and threw everyone to the floor. Cloister bells tolled and were echoing throughout the ship. The Doctor fell to the ground, the Tardis screaming in his head and a sharp pain shot through him. He sat up and gripped his head. "Rose!" he grunted out.

Martha and Jack knelt next to him. He gasped and sat up. “Grab Rose’s most recent DNA sample. Quick!” he shouted, as he stumbled up. Jack grabbed his arm to steady him. “Come on!” he said as he stumbled out of the lab and ran toward the console room. All of them ran after him and when Martha reached him, he was running around the time rotor flipping switches.

“Doctor?” she asked. He ran up to her and plucked the genetic sample container from her hand. He slipped it into a slot on the Tardis and the bouncing and shaking the ship had been doing became even more severe.

“Hang on! This is going to get rough. She’s found a tear and is heading into the Void!” he shouted.

“What do you mean! Doctor, tell us what’s going on!” Donna demanded. The ship pitched sideways and she flew backwards into Jack’s arms. He looked down and winked at her as he steadied both of them against a coral strut. Donna glared at him but didn’t make any move to step away from the charming Captain’s grasp.

Eventually, the shuddering slowed and the cloister bells stopped. The Doctor looked up. “She’s zeroed in on Rose. She senses Rose is in danger, something has her, something bad. She panicked and channeled a psychic message filled with fear and pain to me. It was Rose. We have to find her now!” he insisted.

***********************

Rose felt icy needles piercing her and screamed. It was almost like she was being impaled by a frozen dagger of ice and bits of ice were streaking through her body. The whispering of the Void creatures was pounding inside of her head, pressing and squeezing as thoughts streaked through her mind and others were shoved behind a tightly barred steel door. Finally, part of her broke and she screamed and was enveloped in a glow and everything stopped. She gasped and felt a new reality forming around her. She was in the Tardis. The blue green of the time rotor bathed her in its comforting glow. She sat up and called for the Doctor but she was alone.

She crawled toward the time rotor and leaned into the base. "Oh Doctor," she gasped and tears flowed down her face. She heard the familiar and comforting hum of the Tardis and breathed a little easier. "I'm still in the Void," she whispered. She pulled her knees up and curled up as close to the time rotor as she could and drifted off to sleep. When she awakened, she heard the cloister bells chiming. She felt a bit better and crawled out from under the console and stood up. The monitor was on and symbols were flying across it until there was a flash. Rose jumped back. The monitor was filled with a mixture of black, gray and silver images almost like shadows of humanoids moving about with their faces obscured.

The whispering permeated the Tardis almost echoing along her corridors. Rose looked around and wrapped her arms around herself as the cold began seeping in all around her. She backed up toward a corridor, turned and ran. She ran blindly without reason through corridor after corridor as the whispering followed her. Se ended up in a darkened cathedral-like room with tall stone pillars and Gallifreyan writing carved into the stone walls and floors. She slowly walked in, nervously looking around the imposing empty room. Toward the center was a circular stone structure in the floor, a sort of well with a bronze metallic cover over it. She knelt down and traced her fingers over the Gallifreyan writing on it. "What does all this mean?" she said softly. She looked up at the ceiling wondering if the Tardis could hear here. "If you're there, can you help me? Why am I here? Is this a way out?"

An image of a dark shadow appeared on the other side of the stone well. "Who are you?" Rose asked with a strength she didn't think she had.

"Rose Tyler possesses unexpected qualities. It has contacted that which exists outside of here and beyond us. It is the anomaly, that which should be impossible without activation by that which we were." The shadow almost floated around the room.

"You know this place don't you?" she said to the creature while trying to keep some distance between it and her.

"The anomaly has created an environment from before we became us. The environment is familiar and yet foreign."

"Before you became who you are now? What were you before? What were you known as?" Rose asked.

"What we were before is irrelevant. We are us."

"Funny, I always thought most beings were the sum of their memories. How can you know what you are if you don't know where you came from?"

It paused and its shaped rippled. "We are us. We came here from beyond and became us. Before is meaningless."

"I don't think so. You know about the Tardis and Gallifrey and yet you want me to believe you don't know what happened to you? No," she said, shaking her head and rubbing her arms as the temperature dropped.

"Why does the creature require this information when it isn’t aware of itself?"

"Oh, I'm aware. I know where I'm from and how I got here. I know that this place is all an illusion just as I know that someone is comin’ for me. You keep sayin' I'm different and I may not understand all that, but I do know that I've been through enough, seen enough of the universe, of the multiverse to know anything's possible. I once swallowed time and turned a Dalek army to dust. So yeah, maybe after everythin' I've done, seen and been, I am a bit changed. Who wouldn't be?" Rose noticed when she said ‘Daleks’ the shadowy figure shimmered again. "Daleks, you don't like that word do you?"

"Daleks, a species that exists outside of here, beyond us."

"Yeah, that's right. They destroy everythin' they can. They started the Time War." As soon as Rose said ‘Time War,’ the very room trembled and the cloister bells began sounding. The reality shimmered. Rose tried to steady herself as the shadowy figure before her seemed to stop at the bronze capped well. Rose stared at the Void creature. "Right, words have power, yeah? Specially those words in particular. After all, that was a big thing in time and space according to the Doctor. Sort of destroyed entire species and worlds, undid time and such. You were there weren't you? In the war I mean." It appeared to be paying attention to her.

Rose contemplated the creature before her and the pieces to the puzzle began to fit together in her mind. "That's what happened isn't it? You were there and something happened to throw you into the Void. You got stuck here and became what you are now?" she asked.

"What we were before is not relevant. Rose Tyler is incapable of comprehending what was before here."

"Really? I don't think so. I think I can figure it out. Ya see, certain things seem to affect the Void. Nothin's spose to do that unless it was somethin’ big, really big. Somethin’ that would have, I dunno, shook up the multiverse, maybe even ripped a few holes. You keep sayin' I'm not exactly human so maybe that's why I can feel it. You lot are keepin' me here 'cause I do remind you of what you were before. Question is why? If it doesn't matter then why keep me here?"

"We are us and we must understand. Rose Tyler is becoming self aware, it has begun to grasp its purpose, its creation. It will disclose all to us."

"Why? Why should I? Why do you need to know?" Rose asked, now feeling a bit stronger almost like she was tapping into some inner strength burning deep inside of herself.

"If Rose Tyler does not comply we will extract the information."

Rose felt something in the back of her mind, something she had not felt in a long time. She smiled and reached out to touch that inner light that was now dimly glowing inside of her, a piece that had been missing since she fell into Pete's World. She looked back up at the Void creature. "No, I don't think so. Ya see, my ride out of this place is almost here," she said and began walking a round the well a bit. The creature mirrored her.

"Rose Tyler will not depart until we decide all information has been extracted from it." It replied coldly.

Rose shook her head no. "I wouldn’t be so sure of that. I think there’s a Time Lord on his way here that may disagree.” 

“We require the information. We must understand how the anomaly came into being, it's purpose. How it's design was modified.”

“Yeah, but you won’t tell me why. Know what I think? I think that you’re desperate to figure me out 'cause I remind you of what you were before. Maybe what you became here bothers you. Maybe me bein' here is making you think about before and it's gnawing away at you a bit. So, maybe what we should really be talking about is Gallifrey. You were there when it all went to Hell weren't you?"

The whispering increased several decibels and Rose backed up with her hands over her ears even though she knew none of this was real. When she looked up she saw the room filled with the shadowy Void creatures flying around in a frenzy. The last thing she heard before sliding down the wall into unconsciousness was "Gallifrey, Time War, Time Lords, the end of us."


	5. Chapter 5

The Tardis shook and pitched from one side to the other. Everyone was hanging on for dear life until finally the Doctor seemed to get better control. The cloister bells stopped chiming. Although they still experienced turbulence, they were at least able to stand upright. Donna, who had been clinging to Jack, finally took a breath and turned to the Doctor.

"All right, enough avoidin' tell us what’s goin’ on. Spill now." She insisted.

He looked at her. "What do you mean spill now? I'm a bit busy Donna. Navigating the Void isn’t exactly easy."

"Donna's right, Doctor. You still haven't answered anyone's question. You said someone’s manipulating human genetics. Who is it and why are they doing it? You're sayin’ that an entire section of the human population is effected. We need to know what's goin’ on. I need to know Doctor," Martha insisted, now gripping the console next to the Doctor and staring at him pointedly.

He sighed and looked at Martha's determined expression. "It happened long, long ago in Earth's linear time line almost ten thousand years. Humans had only just evolved to what you call modern man. You won't find any evidence of tampering and no evidence that any higher life forms were there," he said, staring at the console as the ship shifted again.

Mickey snorted. "Course not," he mumbled.

Donna shoved off of Jack until she was gripping the console next to the Doctor. "Oi, we're not gettin’ any younger here!" Donna said and glared at him.

He looked at her and a sad expression fell over his face. "Oh Donna, I am so sorry. They went to Earth during the Holocene era as part of a science expedition. They were scientists, biologists and anthropologists, the brightest and best. Very few knew what they were going to do to the sentient population of your planet or what they did to other worlds at a similar evolutionary stage. Earth, humans were the lucky ones. Other races on other worlds weren't so lucky. Manipulations of their gene pool had catastrophic results. All further such experiments were forbidden. What happened on Earth was done in such a way that it couldn't affect natural development or evolution, as you lot call it, unless the specific genes were triggered."

"Yeah, but who did this?" Mickey demanded, now getting seriously annoyed.

"Doctor, this sort of thing would be considered a priority one offense by the Time Agency and I wouldn't like to think what the Shadow Proclamation would do if they got wind of it," Jack said.

The Doctor scoffed, almost laughing. "The Time Agency! They’re nothing but a bunch of spoiled children, avaricious, pompous self serving beings who think they are capable of policing time travel. The Shadow Proclamation had no jurisdiction over who did this. They weren't even around at the time it was done."

Donna put her hand on his arm. "Doctor, you might bounce on and off of Earth as you please throughout its history, but this is my home. Understand. My home, our home. We have a right to know."

The ship trembled and shook violently and he adjusted a few more controls. He swallowed hard.

"Doctor?" Martha said, staring at him demanding an answer.

"Time Lords. It was my people. Well, my people from well before my creation was even planned. From the dark times."

"What!" Donna practically gasped.

"But I thought Time Lords didn't interfere in less developed civilizations," Jack said.

"They didn’t after the great reform, after Rassilon. Before Rassilon, my people were a bit more cut throat. The ruling party established games where they scooped other species out of time and away from their home planets to fight to the death in a dedicated area called the Death Zone. The games were for the entertainment of the Gallifreyan people not unlike the Coliseum in Earth’s ancient Rome.”

“That’s barbaric!” Donna exclaimed. “So the all powerful Time Lords were like some posh Roman Emperor, conquering the universe and doin’ as they pleased.” Donna practically accused.

The Doctor fiddled with the controls and then answered. “Yeah, sort of. At least until Rassilon came into power. Course, there weren’t really Time Lords back then. It was a bit different. Rassilon brought my planet out of the Dark Times, established rules and formed the foundation of our society based on science, developed our biology to withstand time travel, created the plans for the Tardis and of course, regeneration. He was brilliant and in the end quite mad.”

“Yeah, but the ones that did this to humans, to Rose, they were just mucking about. Why? What did they want?” Mickey asked.

The Doctor turned to him. “They wanted a new species to serve the needs of the high old families of Gallifrey. An experiment performed on several primitive worlds. Sort of like dropping a few seeds in the ground, move along and in a few hundred years you have a tall strong tree to serve your needs. If the seeds don’t germinate, doesn’t matter and if it all comes crashing down, it wasn’t their world anyway. To them, primitive species like yours were inconsequential.”

“But that’s not right!” Martha practically shouted. “How did they get away with this? I mean who was watching them?”

“They didn’t get away with it. My people put a stop to it. Anyway, hardly matters now. They’re all gone,” he said sadly.

Doesn’t matter!” shouted Donna. “How the bloody hell can you say that! Of course it matters! It matters to us and to Rose! You can’t just stand there and do nothing!”

“What would you have me do?” the Doctor shouted back. “They’re gone and it’s done. I can’t undo it without destroying millions of lives. What, you think you can just pluck DNA out of people just like that?” he shouted and snapped his fingers. “It doesn’t work that way.”

Martha spoke up. “The Doctor’s right. It’s not his fault and it’s done. It’s in their DNA now. We just have to watch,” Martha explained. “So what is this trigger, Doctor?”

The Doctor scrubbed at his face. “I suppose to simplify, it would be exposure to a bit of raw time similar to the untempered schism only you couldn’t just shove someone in. Too much would kill them and too little could cause enough change to damage them or drive them mad.”

“So, no chance of it happening by accident then.” Jack said. “Except for Rose. Well, Rose and me.”

The Doctor looked up. “Rose is different. She had the Tardis looking out for her managing her exposure and maybe tinkering a bit herself. She protected Rose. As for you Jack, that was Rose. She just wanted to save you. Unfortunately, your genetic make up was different from hers and she didn’t understand what she was doing.”

Suddenly the Tardis jolted violently, throwing them all to the floor and then stopped dead. The doors flew open revealing the dark nothingness of the Void.

***************************

Rose gasped to consciousness and found herself, again in the Tardis in the large cavernous room. The room was lit from some unknown source which cast shadows about the massive stone pillars. The brass cover over the well was open now. The room was silent except for the whispering of the black robed Void creatures who flew above her, their robes fluttering around but never revealing any features except the swirling darkness within. She stood up and walked over to the well and peered inside. Within was a swirling mass of darkness with pinpoints of light dancing around, slowly being drawn into the dark center. She looked up at the Void creatures. Her body shivered from the frigid cold and she wrapped her arms around herself. She slowly walked around the well and stopped when she saw one of the Void creatures hovering near the well, almost like it was kneeling in supplication.

"You know what's in there?" Rose asked. The creature did not respond. The swirling mass over head whispered, "Harmmmmonnny"

Rose peeked over the edge and looked again at the kneeling figure. "Doesn't look like very much like harmony to me. Reminds me of a black hole. Was on a planet circling one once. Wasn't very pleasant."

She shivered again, stumbled backward a few steps and found her strength waning a bit. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the light that had given her strength. She felt herself mentally grasping at it and yearning to hear it's song. Something flared within her giving her the strength to stand up. When she looked up she saw the Void creature looking at her. The shrouded figure looked more solid, although it still had no face, only a swirling of blackness. "Rose Tyler will share its perceptions."

"Share my perceptions? Oh, I'll share my perceptions all right. Seems to me that you lot are runnin' from somthin' I think you've been runnin' for a long time. Maybe you're not sure who you were before you became this thing you are now. What you afraid of anyhow? You end up in the Void cause you ran away or did someone put you here? Must've been bad and you must've been someone important. You know too much about the Time War not to be."

The room, once again trembled when she said Time War. The creature floated nearer to her. "Rose Tyler will share its perceptions. It is aware of itself now and its modification is almost complete. We must understand what it knows. The impossible creature perceives what we cannot. We must understand. It must show us the way."

"Show you the way?" she asked, now a bit curious about what they wanted.

"We are us. The creature has already shown us that there is more than us. Rose Tyler will show us the way to become more. If the simple creature may evolve and gain altered perceptions, then we may also become more, become the new us. Rose Tyler was designed for service of beings greater than it. It shall be the conduit. It shall show us the way and serve its purpose.”

"Is that so? Funny that you don't seem to think much about what you were, yet you're all wound up about changing yourself. You're still runnin' aren't you and what, you expect me to do somethin' to help you find some new way? I don’t think so,” she said, as she walked around the stone well and noticed how light seemed to bend around the well almost funneling into it. When she turned around, she saw a group of the Void creatures had assembled and more were closing around her. She knew she was in danger and could feel them pressing in on her.

Another piece of the puzzle regarding who they were fell into place in her mind. She gasped. "I know who you are or who you were." The room trembled and pieces starting tumbling down around her. She watched as broken stone was slowly pulled into the black hole in the well. She felt some invisible current tugging her toward the well as if the black hole was gaining more energy and pulling this reality into it."

"Rose Tyler will show us the way now!" the Void creatures said in unison in an eerie booming voice. Rose fell to her knees as she felt this reality crumbling around her, being consumed by the black hole. She looked up as her hair whipped around her wildly. The Void creatures seemed unaffected by the chaos surrounding them.

"You were there when Gallifrey fell!" she shouted at them as more of this reality crumbled and the dark nothingness of the Void seeped in and joined the black hole in consuming this place eating away at the reality, its dark and frigid tendrils wrapping around them. She cried out as one of its icy fingers grazed her arm. "You saw it burn and you ran!" she shouted. "You ran in fear, you ran from responsibility and left it all to him. You let him bear the burden for your mistake. My God, you cowards, you threw yourselves into the Void hoping your Void ship would survive the temporal tsunami that was comin’ for you and all like you. But, it didn't. It fell to pieces tossing all of you here in the nothingness, into the Howling. You paid the price for runnin’ away and now you want me to lead you out don't you?"

Rose felt an icy film forming over her, leeching away her warmth, her life and her essence. She also felt the light within her fighting to keep her safe and protected. An intense anger howled from within her. "You…you said I was an experiment, that you made me. No. You don't control me. I am the Bad Wolf and I create myself and I know what you are. You are the old race, one of the first ones. You had the power of time and space at your finger tips and you let it destroy you, rot you from the inside out. You had no regard for younger races and let your own ambition and vanity consume you. You are Time Lords and this is your penance!" She shouted, almost glowing with a golden light and rage before the darkness claimed her. The creatures of the Void screamed a loud shrieking noise that shot through her. The last thing she saw before the darkness took her was a brilliant blue box with it's doors thrown wide open, its golden light warming the darkness and embracing her with its song.


	6. Chapter 6

The Tardis lights dimmed and its hum was hushed as the Doctor and his companions stared at the unsettling nothingness of the Void, which lay beyond the comforting glow of the interior of the Tardis. The Doctor let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. "Stay away from the doors. Don't even think of going out there. One step and you're lost, and that would be worse than death." He turned to look around at his companions. Mickey had gravitated toward Martha and gripped her hand, his eyes staring at the Void shivering with some deep primitive fear. Martha mirrored his look, trembling slightly and her breath coming quickly.

Donna walked up to the Doctor and put her hand on his arm. "Doctor, what is that?" she asked quietly, feeling unsettled by whatever was outside the Tardis.

The Doctor pulled her close and hugged her. "That's the Void. The dead nothingness between universes. The Howling. This is the place where time doesn't flow. Rose is here, somewhere nearby." He paused and turned her to look at him. "Donna, you must stay here. You can't follow me, understand? This isn't one of those times I tell you 'stay here' and you decide to follow me anyway. I mean it Donna. You step out there and I may not be able to find you. Promise me, you'll stay in the Tardis."

Donna, still staring at the darkness as if mesmerized by it, turned and looked him in the eye. "Yeah, got it. Outside there is a nightmare," she whispered. She pulled herself together. "Just you find Rose, you hear me spaceman. Don't you dare come back without her or you'll be hearin’ from me," she told him with typical Donna spunk although slightly diminished from her normal acerbic nature.

The Doctor nodded and walked over to put on his coat. Jack walked up next to him. The Doctor turned to him. "Not this time, Jack."

"I can't let you do this alone. They can't go with you, they'd die. I can't die. You don't know what you'll find out there," Jack said, while glancing nervously at the open doors.

"Jack, there are some things worse than death and that's what you'd find out there. I'm the only one who can do this. Besides, if things get pear shaped, you're the only one with any chance to get this lot home."

Jack looked at him hard and pulled him into a hug. "Be careful out there. I expect both you and Rose back here." Jack pulled away and took a step back next to Donna. The Doctor nodded at all of them and turned toward the gaping doors. He walked up to the utter blackness before him. He gripped the frame of the doors, closed his eyes and sought out his connection to the Tardis. Her song was soft but firm and insistent. She was using huge amounts of energy to keep them stable in the Void, but he noticed she seemed to be directing some of her reserves toward something else. Whatever it was, she wasn't being forthcoming.

He entered a highly meditative state to deepen his connection beyond the surface telepathy he used on a normal basis for piloting her. This was something he hadn't done very often, and few Time Lords ever attempted it much less achieved such an intimate connection with a Tardis, but he was the Doctor and this was his Tardis. His Type-40 was old when he met her and had her own individual spirit and will unlike any of the Tardises to come after her. The two of them had come to terms of acceptance long ago. It was a quiet alliance which grew into something more as the years and his regenerations passed. After the Time War, they both evolved as did their relationship to each other. She was more than just a ship, more than just a Tardis. They were friends, partners and keepers of the balance of time. It was a relationship that transcended the understanding of linear beings and it's what would help him find Rose in the unfathomable darkness of the Void.

The Tardis seemed to have a connection to Rose he didn't fully understand. The fact that he didn't understand it was quite concerning to him. He was a Time Lord, no creature in the universe had an understanding of the workings of time and space as he did. And yet, here was this human girl, a simple shop girl who wasn't so simple. Within her DNA had been planted something long ago by his own people. Rose possessed such courage, tenacity and compassion combined with the capability of being so much more. His Tardis, at some level, did acknowledge her less advanced passengers, but with Rose, she had taken an interest beyond that of any his other human companions. A Tardis existed at many points in time simultaneously and perhaps she perceived some importance in Rose as she related to the multiverse that he could not. Then again, there was a bit of Gallifrey in Rose and maybe it was that which caught his Tardis’ attention. No matter, Rose formed some type of relationship with his old girl and in turn, his Tardis had done something to Rose to keep her safe when she absorbed the Time Vortex.

Now, here he was at the precipice of the Void relying on the Tardis and his own Time Lord abilities to find his lost Rose. One step forward and he would be in his own personal nightmare. One step forward and he would be closer to Rose. He took a deep cleansing breath and reached his mind out into the Void. What he found shocked him. He opened his eyes and staggered backward. "Doctor?" Jack called out. The Doctor was shaken to his core.

"Doctor, what is it?" Donna asked, taking a step toward him but being held back by Jack.

"It can't be," the Doctor whispered and took a step closer to the doorway. "It's impossible."

Martha and Mickey walked up to stand next to Jack and Donna. Martha winced and looked at Jack. "Every time he says somethin’s impossible it's never good," she confided, shaking her head.

"Doctor!" Donna shouted, trying to shake him out of whatever was entrancing him.

The Doctor looked back at them, his eyes wide in shock. "I can feel them," he whispered and turned back to the Void.

"Feel what?" Donna demanded.

"They're out there in the Void," he whispered again.

"Who's out there?" Martha asked.

"Time Lords. I can feel them," he answered softly.

Donna turned to Martha. "But I thought they were all gone? He's the last."

Martha stared at the Doctor's back with a troubled expression. "Once before we ran into another Time Lord. A psychotic, evil bastard. He took over the world and tortured and killed millions until we reversed time. Not exactly excited to face that again," Martha said, her face an icy mask.

"Don't be daft, if that'd happened I'd remember," Donna insisted.

Jack stepped closer to Donna. “No, you wouldn't. There was a paradox machine holding that reality together. We stopped him and time was reversed so the only ones that remember, were the ones at the center of the paradox. Martha's serious. This is serious. I was there. He tortured us for a year. The year that wasn't," Jack explained with a hardened face.

"We won't let that happen again," Martha said with conviction. "Doctor, whatever or whoever is out there could be like the Master. You know we can't let that happen."

He turned around to Martha. "They're my people and they're trapped in the Void, Martha. I won't walk away from that. I can help them, rescue them, save them," he said passionately.

Jack became extremely agitated. "But you don't even know who they are or what they'd do if they get out. I'm not exactly thrilled at the idea of a bunch of psychotic Time Lords terrorizing the universe."

"They are my people!" the Doctor shouted. "I won't leave them here to suffer. Who knows how long they must have been here wasting away! I have to save them," he whispered.

"That's it. I've had enough," Mickey declared, taking a step forward before Jack stopped him. Mickey turned and glared at Jack. "Look at him! Does he look concerned for Rose? Someone needs to smack him and I'm more than willin' to do it."

The Doctor turned and looked at all of them with a dark, angry expression. "Who do you think you are! Don't even think for a minute that you can tell me what to do. How dare you judge my actions much less condemn my people to rot in the Void for some irrational fear. You know nothing of my people," he said coldly.

Jack stiffened. "Oh really? Funny, ‘cos I think I got to know one of them pretty personally as he tortured and murdered me day after day. Did you think that he was quiet that entire time? Well he wasn't. He told me all about your world. He may have been a psycho, but some of what he said rang true. The lofty and great Time Lord empire with all the political back stabbing, corruption, arrogance and in the end, desire to wipe out not only the Daleks but every other living creature in the universe so they could survive and ascend. Look, I know you miss them and you carry a terrible guilt for what you did, but Doctor, your actions saved billions upon billions of life forms," Jack explained. He paused and took a step forward. "I'm just saying be careful, Doctor. I wouldn't condemn innocent people to this fate. Hell, I'll help you. It's why we're here for Rose. All I'm asking is for you to take a step back and make sure these Time Lords you’re helping don't end up trying to finish what the others started. Don't do that to yourself and don't do that to us. I promise you Doctor, you unleash a bunch of mad Time Lords on the universe, I will stop them no matter what it takes or who I have to take down," Jack told him with utter clear and calm resolve.

The Doctor stared at him darkly. Before he could respond, Mickey stepped forward. "Enough! Fine, you got people out there, good for you. We came here for Rose and she comes first. You get her out and give her to us and you can go wallow around finding whoever the hell those Time Lords are. You can go off and find yourselves some planet and do all the Time Lordy things you want. Just drop us off with Rose first."

The Doctor narrowed his eyes at Mickey. "I told you once, you will not take Rose from me," he said in a tight voice with an undercurrent of the Oncoming Storm.

Donna stepped in between Mickey and the Doctor. “Oi! That’s enough. You!” she pointed at Mickey, “Shut it and let the Martian do what he does best, save people.” She then turned to the Doctor. “And you, stop bein‘ an alien git! Rose needs you. Don’t forget she’s out there and somethin's hurtin’ her. She needs saving as much if not more than some lost Time Lords. Got it?!”

The Doctor nodded his head. “Just stay ready for when I return with them, all of them." He turned and faced the door. He took a deep breath, stretched out his mind and identified Rose and the Time Lord consciousnesses in the Void. They were close by one another. A shiver ran down his spine. Something was terribly wrong but he couldn’t pinpoint it. 

He stepped into pitch dark nothingness of the Void. A feeling of disorientation overwhelmed him for a moment before he latched onto his connection to the Tardis. He felt himself moving forward, almost pulled. A reality began forming around him. He blinked and found himself in the Cloister Bell room of his Tardis or at least a representation of it. Rose was encased in a block of ice at the far end of the room. Several black robed figures were surrounding her with metal spikes violently chipping away. Many more were floating overhead circling the room.

He heard a whispering which said, "The creature Rose Tyler is becoming self aware. It has begun to grasp its purpose and its creation. It will disclose all to us and show us the way to becoming the new us. We will become more and it shall serve us. It will comply."

The Doctor was uneasy as he watched them. He saw one of the metal spikes pierce the ice and trickles of red run down the surface, congealing as it ran so that only a few drops of blood splattered the stone floor. "Stop!" he shouted. "There's no reason for you to do this!"

The creatures turned to him. "It will identify itself," they whispered to him as they crowded in front and above him, keeping him from Rose.

He stared at them in horror. "Time Lords. You're Time Lords," he gasped, as the full frightening realization hit him. His words reverberated through the Void causing the reality to ripple and disintegrate a bit revealing a hideous darkness oozing at the edges, almost as if it were a tarry, stagnant river just waiting to flood this place in a current of its murky depths.

The stone well at the center of the room containing the black hole began consuming the crumbling dust and stone falling from the walls and ceiling of this place. The Doctor stared at it his eyes wide. "Impossible, the Eye of Harmony is gone," he whispered, before logic reasserted itself in his mind that this was all a hallucination, a false reality created within the Void.

"The creature will identify itself," they repeated, in deafening unison.

He stood up tall and looked at them. "I am the Doctor. I'm here to help you. I need to understand how you came to be here," he said, peering around them trying to see Rose.

The Void creatures whipped themselves into a frenzy. "You are from before we became us, the last, he who wielded the moment, the destroyer of everything. The destroyer caused the disintegration of that which contained us, hurled us here to become the new us. We are not you, we are us and we will survive." They said in a hissing voice which echoed throughout the Void while the Doctor flinched at the accusatory tone in their vicious words.


	7. Chapter 7

"You are from before we became us, the last, he who wielded the moment, the Destroyer of everything. The Destroyer caused the disintegration of that which contained us, hurled us here to be come the new us. We are not you, we are us and we will survive." They said in a hissing voice which echoed throughout the Void while the Doctor flinched at the accusatory tone in their vicious words.

 

He stared at them in horror and sadness at what they had become, wondering how they came to be here. Seeing them like this, only added to the heavy weight of his guilt. He looked up at them, his eyes filled with emotion. "But you don't understand! I had no choice. The counsel, Rassilon, they were going to destroy everything. Only the few they chose would have survived. The entire universe including the people of our own world they did not deem worthy would have been destroyed. I couldn't let that happen. Please, let me help you."

"We are us. You are not like us. The modified human is ours, will show us the way to a new us, will serve us. We will live and be the new us. We will make more like the creature Rose Tyler to serve us and serve their purpose."

The full impact of their plans was like a foul bile in his throat. Once again, he was being forced to be a protector of the universe against his own people. He felt such turmoil within himself.

"No! You can't! It's wrong! You know this. What happened to Rose was an accident. That experiment wasn't sanctioned and those responsible were punished. I can't let you do that. I can help you so you don't have to do this. There's no reason to hurt her or anyone else. You could be so much more. Think of the possibilities. We can start new, afresh. Let us work together. Please, I don't want to be alone," he begged with tears in his eyes.

"We are us, this is our realm. You are the Destroyer, the remnant of before we became us. The Doctor will not interfere or stop us from becoming the new us. The Destroyer of All Things will not be permitted to continue. It must cease. The creature Rose Tyler must learn to obey and will see the Destroyer of All Things meet its peril as we become the new us. Rose Tyler will facilitate our joining with Tardis, she is the conduit. We shall evolve and become more."

The Void creatures again drove a spike through the ice and the Doctor felt Rose's pain. The light from his Tardis flared and he felt power flowing in and around him. He looked up at the things that had once been his people. A deep sadness permeated him but was tempered with anger as he became aware of what they had been doing to Rose and what they planned for the universe. Flashes of Rose’s awareness, of what she had experienced and her pleading with them spirited through his mind. The bitter reality that his own people, driven mad by the Void, wanted to use Rose in some new conquest of the universe. Once again he had been tortured with false hope.

"No," he said with an icy calm. "You're not going to hurt Rose any more. You have one chance, just one. Allow me to help you, find you a planet where you can rest and recover, remember all that you were and become better than what the worst of our people were going to do. This is your chance to leave this desolate place and learn how to live again."

The former Time Lords, and he could not even think of them as Time Lords anymore, became agitated and swarmed around him and attacked the ice encasing Rose with a great frenzy. He gasped as he felt an icy tendril from one of them lashing at him. More of them lashed out at him and he felt what he perceived as tears in his clothing and icy trickles of blood streaming down his body and soaking his clothing. He pulled out his sonic and activated it using it to focus a burst of psychic energy which blew the Void creatures away in an explosion of light. He ran to Rose and began yanking the spikes out of the ice. Even though he knew that the appearance of the ice and metal spike was an illusion, an interpretation of the Void creatures' psychic attack, he couldn’t help but feel a well of fury at them and terror for Rose. He placed his hands on they icy tomb with flecks of blood on it and focused on her. He fell backwards as he felt a powerful burst come from the frozen tomb which shattered and rained bits of ice and water all around him. He ran back over to his Rose who was now drenched in frigid water. The Void creatures fell upon them grasping at the Doctor whispering, "The Destroyer shall not interfere. Rose Tyler is the anomaly, the product of what we were, designed for our use. The anomaly will serve us as the conduit to make the new us, to make more of itself to serve us. The Destroyer will fade into obscurity, slowly perish, ripped apart by time as those that were before us. He shall suffer an eternity of pain for his reign of destruction."

The Void creatures began wrenching him away from Rose. "No!" he screamed as he fought them. "You will not touch her!" he shouted.

Suddenly, Rose sat up from the remnants of her icy prison and looked at them. The Tardis pulsed with a light so bright it was as if a sun had gone super nova inside the Void bathing this false reality with its glow, embracing Rose. She looked at the Doctor. "My Doctor," she whispered. She looked at the Void creatures who had dropped him and were swirling just outside of the light. "Told you, my ride was comin‘. You should have let him help you." She turned back to the Doctor who ran to her and took her in his arms. Her head fell limply against his shoulder.

"Rose," he croaked. One of the Void creatures raced down toward them. Rose looked up into his eyes and smiled. "Knew you'd come," she whispered.

They both looked up at the Void creatures. The Doctor felt a rage overtake him. He felt his connection to the Tardis flow through him to Rose, binding the three of them in some form of triumvirate. He drew from this well of power and screamed. "No! You will not have her!" His voice caused the reality to warp and deteriorate. The black hole in the well began strengthening and pulling bits of its surroundings into it. The Doctor pulsed with power, almost consumed by it and stared coldly at the Void Creatures. The Oncoming Storm had arrived. This reality was being destroyed and bits of it were whirling around him striking the Void creatures and being sucked into the black hole. A bubble of energy surrounded he and Rose. The Void creatures furiously pummeled the energy field around them, bounding off and coming back at them.

"Doctor!" a voice rang out. He turned and saw Jack Harkness with a rope tied around his waist, fighting against the howling winds. He was enveloped by the energy field around them and grabbed the Doctor yanking him backward. The Void creatures continued their all out assault on them. The energy field that had been protecting them was weakening as they fought their way back to the Tardis. Rose hung limply in the Doctor's arms and he could feel all warmth leached from her body as frigid rivulets of water dripped from her cold wet clothing. He had to get her back to the Tardis quickly. Soon, the creatures were through the energy field.

Jack, the Doctor and Rose were a few feet from the Tardis entrance. Mickey, Martha and Donna were guarding the entrance with everything from a cricket bat to a tennis racket and a coat rack and striking out at any of the creatures who ventured near them, preventing them from gaining access to the Tardis. Jack heaved them backward but one of the creatures grabbed Rose. It was a tug of war between the Doctor and the Void creature with Rose in the middle. Jack had his arms around the Doctor's waist and was pulling him inside as the Doctor held tightly to Rose shouting "Noooo!"

Finally, Mickey appeared with a pulse canon. He hefted it up, aimed and shot the Void creature grasping at Rose. The creature lost its grip and the group of them tumbled backwards into the Tardis.

The Doctor turned to Jack who was on his knees staring at Rose. Jack looked up at him. "Thank you," the Doctor said and looked down at Rose, gently caressing her cheek.

Martha raced over. “She’s ice cold and barely breathing. We need to get her to the infirmary now!"

The Void creatures continued their assault of the shielding protecting the doorway of the still open Tardis. The Doctor looked at Jack and then Mickey who had also raced up to them. "Take her," he said. Jack nodded and picked up Rose and raced with Mickey and Martha toward the infirmary.

Donna who had been standing off to the side stepped forward. "Doctor, what are you going to do?"

The Doctor stood up and walked up to the doorway staring at the Void Creatures attacking his ship. He leaned against the doorway, his shoulders slumped and a sad look on his face.

Donna walked up to him. "What are they?"

"They were my people, but they were lost in the Void and over time it took them, destroyed any part of them that was good. They deteriorated into these creatures."

Donna put her hand on his arm. "I'm sorry. Is there nothing you can do to help them?"

He slowly shook his head. "They don't want help. They're too damaged. They wanted to enslave Rose, use her like a tool. Those creatures couldn't even acknowledge her as a being, referred to her as an 'it'. I saw what they were thinking, what they did to her."

He turned to Donna. “What they would do to you and your people. I can't allow that," he said and turned back to the door gazing out into the Void. "You should go back and help Martha."

"What? And leave you here to throw yourself out there with that lot cause you feel guilty 'cos you lived? Not likely skinny boy. I know you’re sad and feel guilty over those things out there. Knowin’ you, you gave 'em a choice didn't you?"

"Yeah," he answered, not looking at her.

"Well then, they were stupid and chose not to let you help 'em. Tough luck for them. They want to hold on to all that evil, conquering and enslaving the universe rubbish, then they get what they deserve."

"You don't understand. They're all I have left," he said sadly.

Donna hit him on the back of the head. He turned and stared at her rubbing his head. "Oi! What did you do that for?!"

"Cos you’re bein’ daft. You're not alone. It's like Sarah Jane said when you dropped her off. You've got the biggest family in the universe if you'd just open those Time Lord eyes. Honestly, sometimes I wonder about that big alien brain of yours. Can't see what's in front of you. Now, enough of the moping. Rose needs you and we need to get out of here. No tellin’ what all those things will do to the Tardis. Besides, this place gives me the creeps."

The Doctor stared at her.

"Well, go on then!" she said, crossing her arms and glaring at him.

He nodded his head. "Go on back and check on Rose. I'll get us out of here."

Donna didn't look like she believed him but nodded and left.

He stared at the darkness at what was now a swirling mass of black. He could barely differentiate what were the Void creatures and what was just the utter nothingness of the Void. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he said. He shut his eyes as a tear fell down his face and he turned away.

Just as the doors were shutting, he heard them whispering, "This is not the ending but the beginning of a new us. We will be watching you."

He stared at the shut doors and a shiver passed through him. He backed up to the console and he started the process of finding a way out of the Void and back to the right universe.


	8. Chapter 8

The Tardis shuttered violently. Jack came running out of the corridor. "Doctor?" he asked.

"Take over of the dimensional stabilizers. We have to find a tear to the right universe and it's not gonna be easy," the Doctor said tensely, as he raced around the console punching buttons and flipping switches. Jack nodded and after what felt like an eternity of shutters, sounding of cloister bells and one jolt that threw Jack against a support strut and had Donna tumbling down the corridor swearing a blue streak at them, the Tardis came to a halt.

"Martha wants to talk to you," Donna said to the Doctor.

"Can it wait? We need to get to Cardiff to refuel," the Doctor responded, not looking at her and staring intently at the monitor on the console.

Donna looked ready to smack him. "Fine, but don't muck about. Just land and get back here. Rose is in a bad way. Martha needs your help," Donna said and marched off in a huff.

Jack looked at him like he was trying to figure something out.

The Doctor fiddled with a few more controls.

"You know Doctor, I could probably..."

"No," the Doctor interrupted. You’d end up landing us in the Thames or at Pompeii on volcano day or worse. I'll handle this."

"Right, okay, then are you going to handle Rose or am I taking her back to Torchwood while you hide out?"

The Doctor slammed a control violently and picked up the mallet and pounded the Tardis who again jerked them about until finally dematerializing. The Doctor looked up at Jack, glaring and swept out of the room toward the infirmary. Once he was away from Jack, he slowed his pace and began thinking about Rose. He was afraid of what he’d find in the infirmary. He didn’t know how long Rose had been in the Void or how long the Void creatures had been tormenting her and battering her mind.

Also weighing heavily on him were the amount of changes to Rose while she had been away. The events on the Game Station and the Tardis’ manipulations of her biology may have activated the recessive trait in her DNA, but the ultimate manifestation of changes would have taken time. She could have endured any number of physically traumatic afflictions during this period of metamorphosis. It could have manifested as headaches or nausea, memory loss or worse. He had no idea what those changes had done to her. Was she still his Rose? How would she feel about being different and learning the changes inside of her were a result of Time Lord tampering and his Tardis manipulating her DNA? Did she still have feelings for him? How would he deal with her feelings? She said she loved him at Bad Wolf Bay and how would all of that affect life on the Tardis? Before he could contemplate all this and more, the Tardis saw fit for him to arrive at the medical bay. He paused in front of the door, his hands in his pockets and stared at the door as if it led to his doom. Before he could enter, Martha opened it.

“Doctor, was wondering what was takin’ you so long,” Martha said and took a step back to allow him to pass. He walked into the room, his eyes immediately drawn to the bed on the opposite side where Rose was bundled up under some blankets with some sensors placed on her forehead. He walked over to a monitor and flipped a few switches and watched Gallifreyan writing scroll across the screen. Martha walked up next to him.

“Her body temperature seems to have stabilized at a much lower temperature than is normal for humans. She seems to be breathing easier but the scans show her beta wave pattern is off the charts. Is this all part of whatever happened to her?”

He stared at the monitor not responding to Martha. “Doctor? I need your help. I can’t do anything further until I understand what’s normal for her given the changes to her DNA.” Martha crossed her arms and glared at him. After all his moaning and whinging about how much he missed Rose and making Martha feel second best to his blonde-headed former companion, she couldn’t believe this was his reaction. He should be happy, and not this closed-off gloomy apparition of a Time Lord before her.

“You know Doctor, I just don’t understand. Rose is here, back on the Tardis and you’re just standing there like you wish she was anywhere else.”

The Doctor turned to her. “You don’t understand,” he said and turned to Rose lying unconscious across the room. “She may not be my Rose. There’s no way of knowing for sure what she’s been through or how her time in the Void has affected her, and now she’s trapped here. The walls to between universes are sealed. Her family is on the other side and I have to tell her what happened to her is the result of a Time Lord experiment. How would you feel if I told you that knowing you couldn’t go back to your family and were stuck here with the surviving member of the race that changed you forever?” the Doctor asked, appearing as if he expected the worst.

“You know what Doctor? If I loved you, it wouldn’t matter. What makes you think she won’t be happy to see you? I mean, she left her family risking her life over and over again crossin’ the Void trying to find you. I think she knew the risks and was willing to take them.”

“She’s young and impetuous and she cares too much,” he said softly, gazing down at her. “Now she’s trapped and things have been done to her that I can’t fix. I can’t save her from this.”

“Doctor, I thought I understood you but I don’t think I do,” Martha said, pacing across the med bay. “You’ve given up on her and you’re not giving her much credit.”

Mickey walked in with a tray with tea and sandwiches. He looked from the Doctor to Martha. The Doctor stared at him as if everything was Mickey’s fault. 

“I brought tea and sandwiches for Martha. Thought she might need it while lookin’ after Rose since she seems to be the only one lookin out for ‘er,” Mickey said, setting the tray down on an empty counter.

“Thanks, Mickey but I think we better leave the Doctor alone with Rose. I think he has some things he needs to work out. Don’t you, Doctor?” Martha said, as Mickey picked the tray back up and walked out with her.

The Doctor slowly made his way over to Rose’s side. “Oh Rose, what’s happened to you?” he whispered and grasped one of her hands. The monitor showed an increase in brain activity and he saw her face begin to warm. “You can hear me can’t you?” he asked her.

“I’m so sorry for everything that happened, for losing you at Canary Wharf, for not paying attention to anything that may have been happening to you after the Game Station, for not finding you sooner and for what those things in the Void did to you,” he whispered, caressing her hand.

“Doctor,” Rose whispered. He straightened up abruptly and stared at her startled. “I’m so cold.”

“Rose,” he whispered. He looked into her warm honey colored eyes which were looking sleepily at him. “Cold, right, yes, I can fix that.” He pulled out his sonic and pointed it at some controls and the bed warmed. She smiled and snuggled into the blankets but never let go of his hand. Suddenly, she gasped and tried to sit up but he held her down. “The Void!” she said with a hoarse voice. “The stars are goin’ out! Doctor we need you! Somethin’ terrible’s happenin!” she said in a panic.

“It’s all right now. We’re out of the Void and I‘ve sorted what was happening with the stars. You’re in the Tardis and you’re safe.”

“You found me,” she whispered and smiled at him. “Knew you would.” Her smile faded a bit. “Doctor, I wasn’t alone in the Void. There were…”

“Sshhhh,” he interrupted. “We don’t have to talk about that now. We need to focus on getting you well.”

“No, I have to tell you something about what’s in the Void.”

“No, you don’t. I saw them and know what they are or what they were,” he said with a sad smile.

She looked at him and pools of tears formed in her eyes. “Doctor, I’m so sorry,” she whispered emotionally.

He looked at her and shook his head. “After everything you went through and you’re sorry for me. Oh Rose,” he said and leaned down to gently pull her into his arms and hug her. “You don’t need to be sorry for me. It’s me that owes you. I know they hurt you. If I could change that…”

“No, Doctor. Don’t you go blamin’ yourself. I’m the one that was crossin’ the Void and I’m the one that ran into ‘em. I tried to talk to them but they wouldn’t listen. Oh Doctor, they’re so messed up. They hid in a Void ship during the Time War, but it all went pear shaped. Their ship broke apart and all of them were just floatin’ in the Void. It twisted them up until they became those things,” she told him, hugging him tightly.

He pulled back. “They told you all that?” he asked, surprised that the Void Creatures were that chatty with her.

She shook her head. “No, they didn’t tell me much. I just sort of knew. They kept askin’ me things, demandin’ things. They wanted something from me but I didn’t understand.” All of sudden panic gripped her again as she thought about the stars. She gripped his arm. “Doctor, what about the stars? The universes were collapsing and it was affectin’ the Void.”

He smiled softly at her. “I took care of it. Well, me and Donna, Martha, Sarah Jane and even your Mum and Mickey helped. It’s all right now,” he assured her, omitting Jack as he really didn’t want to have to explain Jack just yet. He gently pushed Rose down onto the bed and pulled the covers up around her. “You should get some rest. You’re still suffering the effects of the Void. We can talk more later.” 

He scanned her again with his sonic and Rose looked up to him, her eyes questioning. “Is Mum all right?“

He turned away and began fiddling with some controls. “Oh, she’s fine. I took her home. Mickey’s still here though. He wanted to stay.”

Rose sat back and absorbed this information and then turned to him. “Doctor, how long has it been since Bad Wolf Bay?”

He paused. “You really should get some rest,” he said avoiding looking at her.

“I’m not that tired and you’re avoidin’ me. So, it’s been a while. Are you, I mean obviously you’re travelin’ with someone so maybe you don’t want me to…” she said but couldn’t finish her sentence. The way he avoided her made her wonder if he was sorry she came back.

He turned to her. “Rose, don’t,” he said, a bit more emotionally than he intended.

She looked at him and then down at the blankets and started pulling at them. “At Bad Wolf Bay you were starting to say something. I thought I knew how that sentence was gonna end but if I got it wrong…” she said softly, still staring at the blankets. All of the insecurities she felt regarding whether or not he wanted her or loved her whispered in her mind. She was so afraid of his answer and she had pinned so much hope and emotion on finding him. One of her biggest fears was that he had moved on and wouldn’t want her around or would resent her coming back at all.

He slid a stool over and sat by her bed. He put his hand over hers. “Rose, I… I am happy to see you. When Jackie and Mickey told me that you were lost, I felt my hearts stop with worry.” 

She looked up at him and smiled. “I missed you,” she said, looking into his eyes and squeezing his hand. “I tried to do what you asked, have a fantastic life. Pete and Mickey talked me into workin’ for Torchwood over there. It wasn’t like this Torchwood. It wasn’t the same as life on the Tardis with you. Doctor, I..”

“Rose, we don’t have to do this now. You’re still recovering.”

“No, Doctor. I need to tell you. I’ve come so far. I crossed so many universes to find you. It’s just that I…I love you. It’s been three years for me and I still love you. Nothin's gonna change that. Not bein’ stuck in another universe, the stars goin’ out or bein’ trapped in the Void.”

For the first time in a long time, he had no words. He just stared at her. 

“Doctor, you don’t have to say anything right now, unless you want me to leave. Course, I don’t have anywhere to go, so it might be a bit of a problem but I knew the risk when I started crossing the Void lookin’ for you. I knew there was no guarantee you’d want me but I had hope. You always said hope was a good thing,” she said, watching him and worrying at his reaction.

Finally, he smiled gently at her. “Rose Tyler, there is no other place in the entire universe I want you except by my side.” He took a deep breath and decided if she could be so courageous and declare her feelings and insecurities to him, then he owed her some truth as well.

“Rose, there something I need to tell you and it may change your mind.”

“Told you, nothin's gonna change how I feel about you. 'Sides, I promised you forever and that’s what I want to give you, my forever as long as it is.”

He stared at her and stood up and began pacing back and forth. “You said you knew what the Void Creatures were.”

“Yeah, they’re Time Lords.”

“Don’t call them that!“ he almost shouted at her. She stared in shock at his reaction. “What I mean is that’s not what they are anymore.”

She nodded her head and looked at him worriedly. “Doctor, the Void Creatures, they said some stuff about me. I don’t know if it was true, but it’s why they kept me there.”

He sighed. “Did they tell you that you’re different?”

“Yeah. They kept saying that I was something new and old, that I was an anomaly, and that I was sort of like they used to be. Doctor, I don’t understand. Did something happen to me?” she asked, her voice trembling slightly. He walked over and sat next to her. “Doctor, whatever it is, just tell me,” she pleaded, becoming a bit frightened at his reticence to talk to her.

“Long ago in the history of my people in what Time Lords consider the dark times, some of my people visited Earth’s ancient past to conduct genetic experiments. There were traits built into human DNA that when combined in the right mix would produce a human far more advanced than his or her counterparts. But, none of it was supposed to happen without a Time Lord there to activate the gene.”

“So, you’re sayin’ that they were right, I’m some sort of experiment. I’m different,” she said softly, staring at the blankets covering her. Suddenly she smiled. “So is that good different or bad different?”

“Just different,” he said softly and held her hand. “It doesn’t change anything. You’re still Rose Tyler.”

“You said this thing in my DNA had to be triggered by a Time Lord. Did you do it? Was there some accident?”

He swallowed hard and looked across the room for a moment. 

“Doctor, if it was an accident, it’s all right, but I need to understand what’s happening and how it happened and… am I going to become like those things or…” She couldn’t finish.

“No!“ he shouted and reached for her hand. “You are nothing like them!” he affirmed adamantly. “You are so much better,” he said softly.

“How did this happen?” she asked, her thumb caressing his hand.

“It was the Game Station. You looked into the heart of the Tardis and she saw what I couldn’t. You should have burned within a short time but you didn’t. I think she saw the recessive gene and used the Vortex to activate it, controlled what was happening giving you enough time to find me and for me to remove the Vortex from you before it was too late.”

“But, I didn’t feel any different. Well, that’s not true, I did a bit,” Rose admitted.

“What do you mean?” he almost demanded.

“Well, it’s like I could feel the Tardis more and well there were a few dreams,” she said, toying with her hair in contemplation.

“Why didn’t you tell me this!” he said, tugging at his hair and pacing.

“It didn’t seem important. I mean, they were just dreams and ‘sides, you were goin’ through your own changes. We was gettin’ to know each other again.”

He stopped and stared at her. “From now on, you need to promise me that if anything like that happens, you tell me.”

She nodded. “So if the Tardis activated this gene, does that mean I’m still changing?” 

“Your DNA has stabilized. This change only enhances your abilities to perceive time, grasp concepts that twenty first century humans aren’t even aware of, maybe enhance your telepathic abilities a bit and changed your biology enough to make you physically a bit more durable and well one other thing,” he said nervously.

“What other thing?” she asked, concerned at all these changes.

He sat down next to her. “Your cellular structure is not deteriorating at the rate of a normal human.” 

She looked at him. “In English please.”

He closed his eyes and squeezed her hand. “You’re going to live a lot longer.”

“How long?” she asked softly.

“I don’t know, could be several centuries. I need to run more tests.”

She trembled slightly and gripped his hand like a life line. When she looked up at him, there was great compassion in his eyes. “I could have been stuck in Pete’s world all by myself,” she breathed out a bit fearfully. She looked up at him with a slight smile. “Promised you forever, didn’t I,” she said.

“Yeah,” he said softly back to her. “How do you feel now?”

She smiled a bit. “I dunno. I’m tired from everything that’s happened. It's all sort swirlin‘ around in my mind.” She smiled a bit brighter at him. “I know everything will be all right as long as I‘m with you.”

He looked into her eyes which were filled with that spark of what he could only describe as Rose Tyler. A smile emerged on his face as he felt her emotions wash over him and he realized, a bit of Rose Tyler had lodged itself in his mind. She sat up and leaned into him. “Doctor,” she whispered with such emotion and felt himself drawn to her almost like a moth to a flame. Their lips met in a soft and tentative kiss that deepened into something beyond passionate. He felt her, tasted her and then he realized he could hear here singing to him in his mind. She blanketed herself around him until there was nothing but him and her. In that moment, the universe could have collapsed and he would not have known it, that is until the Tardis saw fit to unlock the door and a group of eavesdropping companions tumbled in. 

They broke apart and looked at the group of cursing people laying in a jumble on the floor. The Doctor scowled and looked a wall sending a sarcastic “thanks” to his Tardis. Jack was the first to get up and jog over to Rose.

“Hey there gorgeous! Gave us all scare there for a while,” he said with a charming smile and leaned over to kiss her forehead.

Rose stared at him for a long time.

“Uh Rose? You okay?” Jack asked, a bit worried.

“It’s just I thought you were…” she started to say and then shifted gears as she squinted at him. “Jack, you look different. I mean like you’re not entirely human.” She turned to the Doctor. “Why’s his timeline so weird?”

The Doctor looked really uncomfortable. “Yes, well, Jack is…. an impossible thing,” he finally said.

Rose turned and reached for Jack’s hand. She blinked a few times and then understanding lit her eyes followed by tears. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“Hey, hey now. None of that,” he said softly, as he reached up and caressed her hair.

“I didn’t mean to do this to you, Jack. I should have remembered,” she said through her tears. “I shoulda known and had a talk with this one. No one should be alone,” she said emotionally and inclining her head toward the Doctor.

“It’s all right. The Doctor and I have already talked about this. It’s all a bit ancient history for me now. I’m glad you’re all right and finally home. Gives me a chance to visit with my favorite girl now,” he said with a wink. Rose smiled at him.

“Stop it!” the Doctor said, pulling Rose possessively to him. Jack grinned and the rest of the group came up to meet Rose.

“I’m Martha,” Martha said, as she took Rose’s hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you. The Doctor talked about you all the time,” Martha said and shot a look at the Doctor who flinched a bit.

“Did he?” Rose asked curious. “So, you traveled with him then?”

“Yeah, right after he lost you. We met in a hospital on the moon.” Rose grinned at this. 

Mickey made his way over to her bed. “Hey, Babe! Gave us scare there you did,” Mickey said grinning. He leaned over and hugged Rose.

“Oh Mick, thanks for comin’ after me, but you’re stuck here now. What about Jake and Torchwood? You left so much behind,” Rose said.

“Naw, that parallel world was great and all but Gran is gone and there’s nothing more for me to do there. Time for a fresh start.”

“But where will you go? What will you do?” Rose asked, concerned for him.

“Dunno, fresh start like I said.”

Martha stepped forward. “I might be able to help with that. UNIT's always lookin’ for brilliant people,” she said smiling. Mickey looked at Martha and Rose saw something click into place, a new possibility and one that made her ecstatically happy.

Donna came forward. “I’m Donna and it’s about time he came to his senses. Been whinging about you for ages. It’s nice to finally meet you,” Donna said.

Rose looked at Donna and a flash of sadness crossed her eyes. She still vividly remembered the universe where Donna sacrificed herself to save the Doctor. “Donna Noble,” she whispered.

“You all right? You like you just saw a ghost,” Donna said a bit nervous.

“I’m sorry. It’s just… we met in a parallel world and it was…” Rose trailed off.

“You told me ‘Bad Wolf’” Donna whispered, lost in thought. She shook herself out of it and turned to Rose. “The Doctor said that universe doesn’t exist anymore.”

Rose tried to smile. “No, it doesn’t thanks to you. You saved the Doctor and everyone. I’m so happy to meet you again, Donna Noble,” she said softly, tears streaming down her face.

“Oi, enough with the tears. You're back with him where you belong and now maybe the rest of can stop havin’ to watch him mope about. Don’t know how you put up with him. Doesn’t skinny boy’s thousand mile a minute explanations drive you mad!” Rose smiled at this. “It’ll be nice havin’ another female around to chat with while himself here is off tinkerin’ now won’t it?”

Rose sat up a bit straighter. “Oh, I like you already, Donna Noble,” Rose said, grinning and watching the Doctor worry with his hair. 

“Course you do! Now then, you need your rest and we still have to get everyone sorted. Everyone out,” Donna ordered. Everyone said goodbye to Rose and slowly filed out. Jack paused at the door. “You know, the universe is safe, we’re all alive. Sounds like it’s time for a party as soon as you’re up to it,” Jack said with a charming grin, that is, until Donna came back and grabbed him by the ear. “Oi! I said she needs rest!” Donna groused and dragged him away by the ear.

After they were gone, Rose pulled the Doctor down on the bed with her and curled up facing him. “You never did finish that sentence you know,” she said, looking the Doctor in the eyes.

“What sentence?” he responded, looking at their clasped hands.

Rose rolled her eyes. “Blimey, but you can be oblivious. You know very well, Bad Wolf Bay, you disappearin’ before you finished. If it’s my last chance to say this, Rose Tyler dot, dot, dot,” Rose said, a bit exasperated with him.

He looked into her eyes, his alight with mischief. He leaned over close to her ear. “I’ll love you forever,” he whispered. She looked into his ancient eyes and whispered back to him, “I love you forever, always.”


End file.
